Below are five simple 10 to 15 minute brainstorming activities that an instructor could use to activate or teach brainstorming..
Brainstorming Activity 1 – Night and Day (get in groups of 4)
Materials * Sheet of paper and pencil
Everyone is busy and needs routines and shortcuts to make it through the day. If we had to consciously think about the steps involved getting breakfast, we’d have exhausting our thinking energy before we’d even left the house in the morning. Routine thinking may save time and energy, but seriously hampers creative brainstorming, so do the use of electronic gadgets that all kids have. Use this exercise to challenge traditional thoughts and encourage creativity.
1. Make a list of common words e.g. night, smart, heavy, slow, banana.
2. Get your team to list the first opposite meaning word that springs to mind e.g. day, stupid, light, slow, pear. This will flush out the obvious, routine words.
3. Challenge your team to come up with at least 3 further opposite words for each word e.g.
You’ll find some similar meaning words creep into your list – that’s fine as these can spark further opposite meaning words. Remember ideas breed ideas and to keep critical, analytical thinking in check. Limit the time spent on this activity to 10-15 minutes, to keep it fresh and focused.
Now it’s time to introduce the “real” brainstorming activity. Write your problem statement clearly and simply, and let those creative minds go to work on generating new and non-routine ideas to solve the problem.
Brainstorming Activity 2 – What Can You See?
Sometimes you’re so close to a problem you can’t see how it will ever be solved. This situation is so common, it even has it’s own cliché – “you can’t see the wood for the trees”. Here’s a brainstorming game to help you see things differently, and aid the problem solving process
Show these shapes to your team, and ask them to individually write down what they can see. You may find descriptions such as; three colored shapes, or a green circle with a diagonal line, a red hexagon and a yellow thought bubble etc
You can put any 3 photos up on a slide, people will see different things and shapes.
Some may have made a small creative leap and seen the top left figure as a picture into time travel. Others may have taken bigger creative leaps and see a colorful iris of the human eye. It doesn’t matter if you can or can’t see these more outlandish images – there’s no right or wrong answer.
Looking at things in a fresh, new way can trigger a whole train-load of thoughts, and that’s the essence of effective brainstorming.
Get the team to look at the shapes again and see how they describe them differently, second time round.
Now, focus on your problem, and encourage your team to look at it with fresh eyes or “in a different light”. How would they describe the problem to a non-English speaker, a child or a Martian?
Use this process to encourage objectivity and distance from a problem, and start a more creative problem solving process.
Brainstorming Activity 3– Who’s Line Is It Anyway?
“Normal” behavior is encouraged at school, as this is the easiest, most efficient way to get things done. As a result, student’s creative self often is hidden away, getting flabby from under-use. Then along comes a teacher demanding students do some brainstorming to come up with an innovative solution. Ouch! Like un-used muscles, creativity improves with exercise, so here’s a brainstorming exercise to warm-up those under-used creative muscles.
Just like the TV show, the principle of this brainstorming exercise is simple – improvisation.
Collect 5 random props from home, the school or just from a student’s book bag e.g. belt, toy dog, post-it notes, lunch box and paper clip.
Leave these props in the middle of the room and encourage people to come up with different uses for the props e.g. the belt could become a Japanese warrior’s head-band or the toy dog is hidden from the group and is “dog-gone”. You get the drift!
Give this exercise a time limit of 10-15 minutes and encourage all team members to take part. Even the shyest will have some creative use for the props!
Have the groups put on a skit in front of the class.
If you’re aiming to develop a new solution, take your existing product or process and see how you could use it or look at it in a different way. The wackier the better at this stage – remember you’re aiming for quantity not quality – and take note of the ideas generated. It’s only later that we put our critical hats back on, and rate the ideas and assess their suitability.
Brainstorming Activity 4– Far-Fetched Excuse
Have the students come up with something that they did not do and got them in trouble at home or school.
Example: I didn't have a bath last night.
Job come up with 10 excuses why
Example 1. Tub was full of paint; my dad was using it as a paint holder when he was painting the bathroom.
Brainstorming Activity 5** – 101 reasons
Make up a 101-uses-for list with some very common. You could have students pick the object they want. The team that comes up with the most wins. This teaches very creative thinking.
For example: 101 Uses for Paper Clips: Holding papers together. Picking locks. Making necklaces. Playing with magnets....
Brainstorming Activity 1 – Night and Day (get in groups of 4)
Materials
* Sheet of paper and pencil
Everyone is busy and needs routines and shortcuts to make it through the day. If we had to consciously think about the steps involved getting breakfast, we’d have exhausting our thinking energy before we’d even left the house in the morning. Routine thinking may save time and energy, but seriously hampers creative brainstorming, so do the use of electronic gadgets that all kids have. Use this exercise to challenge traditional thoughts and encourage creativity.
1. Make a list of common words e.g. night, smart, heavy, slow, banana.
2. Get your team to list the first opposite meaning word that springs to mind e.g. day, stupid, light, slow, pear. This will flush out the obvious, routine words.
3. Challenge your team to come up with at least 3 further opposite words for each word e.g.
Night = day,sun,white,awake, …..
Smart = stupid, scruffy, shabby, in-elegant, clumsy, gawky
You’ll find some similar meaning words creep into your list – that’s fine as these can spark further opposite meaning words. Remember ideas breed ideas and to keep critical, analytical thinking in check. Limit the time spent on this activity to 10-15 minutes, to keep it fresh and focused.
Now it’s time to introduce the “real” brainstorming activity. Write your problem statement clearly and simply, and let those creative minds go to work on generating new and non-routine ideas to solve the problem.
Brainstorming Activity 2 – What Can You See?
Sometimes you’re so close to a problem you can’t see how it will ever be solved. This situation is so common, it even has it’s own cliché – “you can’t see the wood for the trees”. Here’s a brainstorming game to help you see things differently, and aid the problem solving process
Show these shapes to your team, and ask them to individually write down what they can see. You may find descriptions such as; three colored shapes, or a green circle with a diagonal line, a red hexagon and a yellow thought bubble etc
- You can put any 3 photos up on a slide, people will see different things and shapes.
Some may have made a small creative leap and seen the top left figure as a picture into time travel. Others may have taken bigger creative leaps and see a colorful iris of the human eye. It doesn’t matter if you can or can’t see these more outlandish images – there’s no right or wrong answer.Looking at things in a fresh, new way can trigger a whole train-load of thoughts, and that’s the essence of effective brainstorming.
Get the team to look at the shapes again and see how they describe them differently, second time round.
Now, focus on your problem, and encourage your team to look at it with fresh eyes or “in a different light”. How would they describe the problem to a non-English speaker, a child or a Martian?
Use this process to encourage objectivity and distance from a problem, and start a more creative problem solving process.
Brainstorming Activity 3 – Who’s Line Is It Anyway?
“Normal” behavior is encouraged at school, as this is the easiest, most efficient way to get things done. As a result, student’s creative self often is hidden away, getting flabby from under-use. Then along comes a teacher demanding students do some brainstorming to come up with an innovative solution. Ouch! Like un-used muscles, creativity improves with exercise, so here’s a brainstorming exercise to warm-up those under-used creative muscles.
Just like the TV show, the principle of this brainstorming exercise is simple – improvisation.
If you’re aiming to develop a new solution, take your existing product or process and see how you could use it or look at it in a different way. The wackier the better at this stage – remember you’re aiming for quantity not quality – and take note of the ideas generated. It’s only later that we put our critical hats back on, and rate the ideas and assess their suitability.
Brainstorming Activity 4 – Far-Fetched Excuse
Have the students come up with something that they did not do and got them in trouble at home or school.
Example: I didn't have a bath last night.
Job come up with 10 excuses why
Example 1. Tub was full of paint; my dad was using it as a paint holder when he was painting the bathroom.
Brainstorming Activity 5** – 101 reasons
- Make up a 101-uses-for list with some very common. You could have students pick the object they want. The team that comes up with the most wins. This teaches very creative thinking.
For example: 101 Uses for Paper Clips: Holding papers together. Picking locks. Making necklaces. Playing with magnets....